Head Coach Kyle Shanahan Press Conference

Head Coach Kyle Shanahan

Press Conference – November 8, 2024

San Francisco 49ers

Opening comments:

“Injuries for the game: [DL] Kevin Givens will be out, [WR] Chris Conley will be out, [CB] Charvarius Ward will be out, [DL] Yetur [Gross-Matos], out, [DL] Nick Bosa, questionable, [WR] Deebo [Samuel Sr.], questionable, [OL Jon] Feliciano, questionable, [S Malik] Mustapha, questionable, and [QB Christian] McCaffrey, questionable. Go ahead.”

I know that the service for Charvarius ‘Mooney’ Ward’s daughter was today. How much representation from the 49er was there, to your knowledge?

“No players or coaches could go, unfortunately. I know [president of football operations/general manager John] Lynch went out there I don’t know the exact number, but a number of our support staff. I know [senior director of player affairs & engagement] Austin [Moss], Pastor Earl. I got to FaceTime with Mooney yesterday. Lynch got to be at the service, I talked to him earlier today after it ended. It was a great service. He had a hell of a eulogy that he did and he was very appreciative of everyone’s support throughout all this.”

Does Feliciano being questionable mean that he could be activated before the game?

“He could, yeah. Probably not, but we still have some things to decide here in the next 24 hours. But it’s kind of comparing to a lot of other spots.”

With Christian being questionable, is that a situation where you can’t list him, you have to list him as questionable until you activate him?

“Yeah. We’ll take him off IR or whatever it is tomorrow, and then he will be good to go. Unless something crazy happens on this plane ride he should be good to go tomorrow once he gets off IR.”

Did he look like the old Christian in practice this week?

“Yeah, he had a good week.”

This Tampa defense stacks the box against the running backs quite a bit and you guys have faced a lot of stacked boxes this year, but you’ve had a lot of success against it. Why would you say that is the case?

“I think the stacked boxes are, there’s not as much space, but sometimes you get the most yards versus teams who stack the box. When you stack the box, one person gets out of a gap and there’s only one guy left and that guy is 20 yards away and there are two corners on the outside with receivers to block. So a stacked box sometimes gives up the most yards. Sometimes when people stay in a two-shell, yeah there’s a little more space and stuff, but once you get to that six-yard area, there are two safeties swarming in together, there are two clouds condensing everything. So there’s more space to begin but it ends. It’s tough sledding versus an eight man box. This team causes so many negative runs and that’s why they get you in a lot of second-and-twelves and when you’re in that position they can make you one dimensional and scare you out of the run. Which is why it’s always been tough versus [Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach] Todd’s [Bowles] stuff. He’s going to try to stop the run and pick and choose when to do it, but it’s always a challenge versus these guys.”

What did you see this week from S Tashaun Gipson Sr.? Would he be in the mix, potentially, to be elevated tomorrow?

“Yeah, he is in the mix. Especially with Mustapha being questionable. He got a week in practice at Jacksonville, he’s done awesome this week in his three days. And we’ll discuss that with him over these next 24 hours. It’s nicer being on the east coast, we get until four o’clock instead of one. But those are all things that he looks good enough to do it. Just kind of depends on the health of everyone else.”

The defense hasn’t changed at all with the coordinator change enough?

“No.”

I know DL Sam Okuayinonu was here at the end of last year, but did you know much about him and did you have any real expectations for him to contribute, say, in training camp?

“Yeah, we did in training camp. Started kind of in OTAs. I didn’t really know much about him at the end of last year, him getting here so late and stuff. But I knew everyone liked him and then watching him in OTAs in phase one, phase two OTAs, just us watching how he moved and stuff in individual, we were excited about him. And then he had an unbelievable training camp. In training camp he was one of the best players out on the practice field and we were real excited about him. And then he pulled his hamstring, I think it was his hamstring, so he missed a number of weeks and didn’t really get to do it as much in the games and kind of went a little under the radar there. But his first 10 days or whatever, he was a problem in camp.”

He mentioned when he was on the practice squad that he didn’t, wasn’t really into giving good looks and getting practice squad player of the week. He wanted to be disruptive and piss people off. He said he may have succeeded in doing that plus getting you pissed off a few times. Is this accurate?

“Definitely, but both ways. There’s a fine line with scout team. I want guys to compete, I want them to get better. I also want them to get our guys ready to play. And the way you do that is by competing. You don’t sit there and brother-in-law with people and just say, ‘Hey, let’s just kind of do this to make coach happy.’ That doesn’t get someone to compete or it doesn’t get someone ready for Sunday. But also, you can’t just go wreak havoc every single play and do stuff that they’re not going to see in the game just to get noticed. So there’s a fine line with that. And he is such a violent guy, and you can’t cut and stuff in practice so when you have guys just teeing off on people and there’s no threat to cut, that’s one of the most unfair things in football because you’ve just got to stand up and take it. That’s why I always believe in cutting, not because you do it, because if people know that you can cut someone, then they can’t just go reckless kamikaze right at you and just run you over. He knows we can’t do that in practice, he did that a couple too many times to our backs and stuff, and that’s when I got bothered by him. But I also got pumped up because half the time people were complaining about him I got on the guys complaining about him because if they wanted to do something, block him. So there’s a fine line in both. But he was a stud on practice squad, he just kind of had to learn how to totally do it.”

Did K Jake Moody make the progress you expected from when he had his sprained ankle?
“More than it. I have a lot of experience with high ankle sprains and they’re one of the most aggravating, annoying injuries that a player can get. I didn’t have any experience with a kicker getting it, especially on his kicking foot. So I just assumed that would be IR and stuff and especially on his kicking foot. But I was kind of surprised he said it would be worse on his plant foot, just me not understanding truly how to kick. So I was surprised he came back by now, but he’s looked great this week and it’s been awesome to have him back. He should be good to go here on Sunday.”

You haven’t been able to see much from DL Khalil Davis, the new guy. How important is it to just have a large rotation of defensive lineman with that heat?

“It is important. Definitely with the heat especially, I think it’s always important just the style that we play. We like eight guys up, we’d always like to get nine guys up. You just can’t always. And we’ve had guys banged up this year, starting with [DL Javon] Hargrave losing for the year, not having [DL] Kevin [Givens] this week, [DL] Kalia [Davis] coming back late. It’s going to really be tough with Khalil Davis and Kalia Davis for me. But we need more depth just with the injuries and the more the merrier. We were pumped to be able to get him here and he’s fitting in very well this week.”

Is the familiarity with Houston’s coaching staff something that helped get that across the finish line there at the last minute?

“I think that’d be more of a question for John. I don’t totally think so. I know all 32 teams discuss any possibilities on every single player and he was a possibility. We look into everything. I’m sure they floated that out to other teams too. But when you’re getting a player that you don’t know and you have guys that do know him that you trust and also that scheme-wise you can see him do stuff so you don’t have to just imagine if he could do it, you can see him do it a little bit. And having guys like [DL] Maliek [Collins] and stuff on our own team, who could vouch for him, that stuff made it a lot easier for us to pull the trigger.”

With what Bosa was able to do this week, are you at all concerned about him on Sunday?
“I am to a degree. He wasn’t able to do a lot. He definitely was extremely limited. Hoping he’ll be alright, but we’ll see on Sunday.”

Was he hurt going into the Bye?

“No. He just banged into somebody, got a little hip pointer and it just bothered him. I think it was real early in Wednesday’s practice.”